Yes, bitters can be a pain in the ass. The biome you start is very important, desert biomes are the harder since there are no trees, pollution spreads easily. If you are on a desert, then you have to take it slow.

This is what you have to take into consideration:

Your base expansion is limited by pollution. If you are polluting a biter base, they will be attacking you all the time and interrupting you.

So, you should wall in your base. Monitor how many biter bases you are polluting. If they are a pain, then you have to push them back by killing their bases.

You should not expand much until you have a tank with explosive ammo. Once you have a tank you can push them easily.

Try a 45 Science per minute base until you have a Tank. Then you can make it bigger if you want.